Parental Education and Invention: The Finnish Enigma

Philippe Aghion, Ufuk Akcigit, Ari Hyytinen, Otto Toivanen

Research output: Working paperScientific

Abstract

Why is invention strongly positively correlated with parental income not only in the US but also in Finland which displays low income inequality and high social mobility? Using data on 1.45M Finnish individuals and their parents, we find that: (i) the positive association between parental income and off-spring probability of inventing is greatly reduced when controlling for parental education; (ii) instrumenting for the parents having a MSc-degree using distance to nearest university reveals a large causal effect of parental education on offspring probability of inventing; and (iii) the causal effect of parental education has been markedly weakened by the introduction in the early 1970s of a comprehensive schooling reform.
Original languageEnglish
PublisherHelsinki Graduate School of Economics
Number of pages47
ISBN (Electronic)978-952-7543-02-3
Publication statusPublished - Feb 2023
MoE publication typeD4 Published development or research report or study

Publication series

NameHelsinki GSE Discussion Papers
PublisherHelsinki Graduate School of Economics
No.3
Volume2023
ISSN (Electronic)2954-1492

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